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Friday, March 11, 2011

The market may remain volatile next week as investors eye a slew of economic and corporate data. The Reserve Bank of India undertakes a mid-quarter policy review on Thursday, 17 March 2011. Six out of 10 economists polled by Capital Market expect 25 basis points increase in repo rate and reverse repo rate each from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 17 March 2011. The rest 4 economists expect no change in policy rates.

The market edged lower as tension in Middle East and North Africa region and a major earthquake in Japan on Friday, 11 March 2011, sapped risk appetite. Political worries early in the week, which abated later, triggered volatility. With the ongoing violence in Libya keeping crude-oil prices above $100 a barrel, market men fear the government might soon have to let fuel prices from state-owned energy firms rise.

The key benchmark indices logged declines for the second running day as global stocks dropped after a massive earthquake in Japan triggered a 10-metre tsunami on the northeast coast of that country today, 11 March 2011. However, there was no tsunami alert by India even as tsunami warnings were issued for many other countries, including Mexico, New Zealand, Indonesia and Taiwan, which helped Indian stock pare intraday losses. The BSE 30-share Sensex was down 153.89 points or 0.84% to 18,174.09, up 110.8 points from the day's low and off 194.34 points from the day's high. The BSE Sensex had declined 0.77% on Thursday, 10 March 2011, on weakness in world stocks caused by continued fighting in Libya and a rating downgrade on Spain.

The initial public offer (IPO) of women inner-wear manufacturer Lovable Lingerie was subscribed 34.59 times by 17:00 IST on the fourth and the final day of the issue today, 11 March 2011. The IPO received bids for 13.37 crore shares compared with 38.67 lakh shares on offer.

It was yet another boring trading day on the Indian bourses, with the benchmark stock indices ending slightly lower despite a steep drop in food inflation. The NSE Nifty ended below the 5500 levels as Metals, Banking, IT and Telecom stocks declined. However, select Realty, Auto, Capital Goods and Power stocks bucked the negative trend. In the broader market, select Mid-Cap and Small-Cap stocks managed to attract some buying.

Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself -Mahatma Gandhi.

Violence and hostilities, some perhaps stray in nature, have been attracting great attention. Global markets in turn have been swinging to the beat of political turmoil in the MENA and its impact on crude oil. Hostilities in Libya have intensified, especially around oil assets. Even Saudi Arabia seems to be witnessing sporadic protests.

A weak opening is on the cards as escalation of violence in Libya and protests in Saudi Arabia along with weak economic data dented sentiment across world markets. Trading of S&P CNX Nifty futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates a fall of 44 points at the opening bell. The BSE Sensex had declined 0.77% on Thursday, 10 March 2011 on continued fighting in Libya and on a rating downgrade on Spain.